The  Ideal  Confederate  Soldie: 


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Onitoergitp  of  J13ort|)  Carolina 


Collection  of  jI2ortl)  Caroliniana 
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PP=^==^^=**=  — ITTI  II  II 

The  Ideal  Confederate  Soldier 


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ADDRESS  BY 


Judge  Armiftead  Burwell 


Unveiling  Confederate  Monument 

Cornelius,  N.  C,  August  4th,  1910 


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My   Comrades:— 


We  have  been  permitted  once  more,  The  custom  of  assembling  at  this 
^upon  this  anniversary,  to  come  to  place,  upon  this  anniversary,  which 
Vhis  place  of  meeting,  and  to  spend,  has  today  drawn  hither  this  vast  as- 
under most  delightful  circumstances,  sembly,  was  inaugurated  very  many 
hours  of  pleasant  social  intercourse,  years  ago  by  some  survivors  of  the 
exchanging  with  our  neighbors  and  Confederate  Army,  to  keep  alive 
friends   the   sweet   courtesies   of   life,  those   feelings   of   fellowship   and    af- 

And,  thus  refreshed  and  comforted,  fection  which  had  been  first  kindled, 
and  accompanied  and  surrounded  by  or,  at  any  rate,  had  been  intensified, 
this  throng  of  spectators  and  par-  by  the  testing  intercourse  of  camp 
ticipants,  whose  presence  attests  the  and  march  and  battlefield, 
interest  they  feel,  and  does  to  us  "The  "reunion,"  thus  established, 
great  honor,  we  have  assembled  here  founded,  as  it  was,  upon  mutual  af- 
that,  by  fitting  ceremony,  we  may  fection  and  esteem,  and  designated  to 
dedicate  to  its  pious  purpose  this  foster  good  will  and  neighborly  kind- 
monument,  which  stands  today  be-  ness  among  all  who  came  within  the 
cause  of  the  loving  labors  of  a  few  sphere  of  its  influence,  has  grown  in 
devoted  members  of  our  little  band,  importance  and  attractiveness  from 
and  the  cheerful  contributions  of  year  to  year  until  now,  today,  the 
many,  whose  generosity  we  would  people  come  with  one  accord  to  show 
now  most  cordially  acknowledge.  themselves,    not   only    neighbors,    but 

And    we    have    come    to    formally  friends,  one  to  the  other, 

commit    its    keeping    to    the    younger  But   alas!    and   alas!    of   the   many 

generation  that  is  now  here,   and   to  it   was   decreed   that  the   places   that 

the    generations   to     whose     keeping  knew     them     shall     know     them     no 

they   must,  in  turn,  entrust  it.  more   forever. 

It   is   most   proper   that   we   should  Ten     comrades     stand     where     one 

thus  do.  hundred  stood  on  that  August  day  of 

For  it  is  well  that  here,  upon  this  the  long  ago,  and  time  has  put  upon 

spot  hallowed  to  so  many  within  the  all  of  the  survivors  of  th*se  survivors 

range  of  my  sight  by  precious  mem-  the   sure   prophecy   of  a  swift-coming 

ories,  a  shaft  to  the  honor  of  the  Con-  disappearance. 

federate  soldier  shall  stand,  surmount-  And    yet,    there    is    no    tremor    in 

ed  by  his  effigy,  in  perpetual  remem-  your    thinned    and    thinning    ranks — 

brance    of    his    virtues,    displayed    as  as   there    was    none   when,   upon   the 

they  were,  both  in  war  and  in  peace,  battlefield,   death,   in  its   most  horrid 

and  recorded,  and  told,  and  sung,  as  form,  seemed  often  so  surely  coming 

they   are,   in   the   history,    the    litera-  on;    and,   without   bravado,   but   with- 

ture,    the    poetry   and    the    music,    of  out    fear,    you    await    the    inevitable, 

this    great,    this    glorious,    this    now  only    caring   now   for   the   welfare   of 
united,  nation.                                           the    loved    ones    to    whom    you    must 


commit,  not  only  the  property  which  izen    in   times   of   peace,    and    by    the 

you    have    earned    for    them    by    your  soldier    in    times    of    war —    if    horrid 

labors,    but   all    the   honor   which   lies  war   must   come — from   the   record   of 

in  having  acted  well  your  part,  how-  your   lives. 

ever  humble,  in  the  dramas  of  life—  Honored,  therefore,  as  I  am,  by 
that  the  names  you  bear  may  contin-  being  selected  to  speak  for  you,  and 
ue  to  be  synonyms  of  courage  and  to  y°u>  today,  I  feel  that  I  have  un- 
truthfulness and  honesty  and  honor.  dertaken  to  set  forth  what  the  "Ideal 

The  projectors  of  this  monument,  Confederate  Soldier"  truly  represents, 
realizing  the  good  effect  of  this  an-  For  this  shaft  is  surmounted  by 
nual  assembling  of  the  people  of  the  emSY  of  no  particular  officer  or 
this  neighborhood  at  this  place  in  soldier,  but  is  intended  to  stand  for 
friendly,  social  companionship,  earn-  that  composite  ideality,  and  to  re- 
estly  desire  that  the  pleasure-giving  mind  Passing  generations  of  his  ,aims 
custom  may  be  continued  for  many,  his  true  Purposes,  and  his  wonder- 
many  years,  and  that  here  our  chil-  ?ul  accomplishments, 
dren's  children,  to  the  remotest  gen-  But-  before  x  beSin  the  enumera- 
eration.  may  each  year  meet  in  de-  tlon  of  those  virtues  which  this  ideal 
liehtful  intercourse.  nas  represented,  and  does  now  repre- 
^These  "reunions"  of  the  coming  sent>  J  ask  your  indulgence  while,  in 
years  you  and  I  my  comrades,  will  thls  Presence  and  at  the  foot  of  this 
not   attend.  monument,  I  declare  that  this  "Ideal 

But    in   our    places    will    come,    we  Confederate   Soldier"   was   neither  an 

hope,    from    farm    and    factory,    from  advocate    of    human    slavery,    nor    a 

town  and  city,  happy  throngs  of  con-  favorer  of  the  disruption  of  the  Union 

tented  and  patriotic  people,  who  will  or  ^ne   States. 

thus     perpetuate    this     pleasing     cus-  I  do  not  speak  of,  or  for,  the  Con- 

tom.                                                              .  federate   politician  or   statesman,   but 

The  little  boy  who  today  plays  fo  rthe  ideal  of  those  boys  and  men 
about  his  father's  knees,  and  wond-  who,  leaving  father,  mother,  sister, 
ers,  perhaps,  what  all  this  means,  wife  or  children  to  the  care  of  that 
will,  at  some  coming  "reunion,"  be  God  in  whom  they  had  been  taught 
Ihe'man  upon  whom  will  rest  the  to  trust,  went  forth  from  happy 
grave  responsibilities  of  life,  and  homes  beneath  this  Southern  sky  to 
girls  and  boys  yet  unborn  may  in  the  weariness  of  bivouac  and  battle- 
sight  of  this  monument,  and  beneath  fleld,  to  find  rest  only  in  a  soldier's 
the  shade  of  these  oaks,  spend  hours  grave,  or  in  a  home  to  which  desola- 
of  pure  and  joyful  intercourse.  tion    nad    come,    but    into    which    de- 

To  these  people,  young  and  old,  of  sPair  was  not  allowed  to  enter.      ,  . 

,,„,                                     ,..,           ,  By     force     of     circumstances     the 

the    future    years,    your    children    and  .,     ,    ~,  „f   ,       .          ,,.           „„„«*„ 

,  ., ,       ,       ,  . , ,                           , ,  ideal    Confederate    soldier   was    a    de- 

your    children  s    children,    you    would  fender    Qf    slavery     He    was    not    its 

speak   by  this   silent  messenger,   and,  willing   advocate. 

with     beseeming     modesty,     and     yet  This    statement    is    most    eminently 

with  pardonable  pride,  bid  them  heed  true  of  the  ideal  North  Carolina  Con- 

the  lessons  to  be  learned  by  the  cit-  federate  Soldier. 


■  The  ideal  Confederate  soldier  was  ble,  but  honorable  duties  to  which  he 
not  a  favorer  of  the  disruption  of  had  resolved  to  devote  the  remainder 
the  Union  of  the  States.  He  had  been  of  his  life,  disdaining  to  tread  any- 
taught  to  love  that  Union,  but  he  had  fBU^rSfe^orTrlBr. 

been  also  taught  that  his  first  alle-  THfe  ideal  Confederate  soldfer  was 
giance  was  due  to  the  State  of  his  not  a,  favoreA  of  the  'disruption  of 
nativity  and  citizenship,  and  when  path  that  honor  forbade  a  hero  to 
that  State  asserted  that  the  Union  tread,  and  refusing  to  get  riches  by 
was  practically  broken  up  by  the  ac-  the  bartering  of  his  name  and  fame, 
tion  of  the  people  of  the  North,  and  And  as  it  was  of  the  great  Corn- 
had  been  then  formally  dissolved  by  mander,  so  it  also  was  of  his  humb- 
the  legal  proceeding  of  a  convention  jest   s0ldier. 

of  the  people  of  the  State— his  people  The    «surrender,"    as    it    is    called, 

—blood  of  his  blood  and  bone  of  his  marked    an    epoch    in    his      life.      It 

bone— then,    and    not   until    then,    did  changed,   and   yet   it   may   be   said   it 

he  become   an   enemy   of   the    Union,  did  not  change,  that  life.    It  did  not,    in 

and  a  resister  of  its  power.  essentials,     alter     his     high     purpose, 

But  what  positive  human  character-  0r  lessen  the  vigor  of  those  pure  mo- 

istics     does     this     ideal     Confederate  tives    that    had    moved    him    to    ac- 

coldier  represent?  tion. 

Of    what,    my    comrades,    shall    his  He  had  not  been,  and    even  under 

silence  speak  to  this  younger  genera-  the   gtregg   and   strain       '  the   circum. 

tion    and    to   the    generations    yet    to  stances   that   surround^him,  he   could 

come .  not   ke    a   wild-eyed    South   American 

We  are  removed   from  Appomattox  revolutionist,  bent  on  "rule  or  ruin." 

by  two  score  and  five  fleeting  years.  He  had  been  a  citizen,  patriotic,  as 

The   rapid   march   of  events   and   the  he  thought,   armed  with  gun  and   sa- 

good    sense    and    good    humor    of    a  bre     and     cannon.     He     Decame,     by 

great    people    have    borne    us    a    full  easy    transition,    a    patriotic    citizen, 

century   from   the   defeats   and   disap-  equipped  with  hoe  and  axe  and  pjr.w. 

points    that    culminated    at    that    his-  And   with   thege    it  may   be    bettRr 

toric    spot— that    place    which    marks,  armgi    he    waged    foj.    thig    Southlan(i; 

not  the  disappearance  of  the  Confed-  and   for   Mg   home    and   firegide     .,nd 

erate    soldier,    but    his    entry    into    a  for  Ms  loyed  oneg    &  contest  against 

newer  and,   perhaps,   more   heroic   ca-  naverty   and  want>   such   as   man    has 

reer.     Lee  was  truly  majestic  on  the  geldom  waged 

battlefield   of  Gettysburg,   but,   in  tne  Re   h&d   turned   frQm    ^    fifeIdg    of 

light  of  subsequent   events,    may   not  blf)od    &nd    carnage    with    the    iyxinm 

we   say   that  this   hero   of   a   hundred  th       ht   that   the   God   of  his   fa:-levs 

battles — this   typical    Southerner — this    .     .  *         .    _. .  .        ...     . , ,.._ 

highest  type  of  the  American  man-  had  deserted  him;  but  in  his  new  Me, 

was   in  truth  even   more   majestic   as  about  his  stricken  home  and  his  deso- 

he   rode   away   from   the   presence  of  lated  fields,  God's  sunshine  an.i  uod  s 

his    great   and   generous    foe,   to   take  care    were    found,    and    with    course, 

up    burdens    of   life    such    as    he    had  compared   with  which  the  braverv  of 

never  borne,  and  to  assume  the  hum-  the   battlefield    is    as   naught,    he    has 


been  victorious.  South  then,  as  in  the  days  when 
And  beoaise  of  his  patient  ami  he  trod  the  blood-stained  fields  of 
fearless  labors  in  the  half-sco^e  years  Virginia,  may  show  to  the  world  the 
that  immediately  followed  the  "sur-  endurance,  the  dashing  bravery,  the 
lender"— Ins  stand,  in  time  of  so  calm  courage  which  he  evinced.' 
called  peaoe,  for  his  race,  his  people  And  if  carping  critic  shall  ask  by 
and  his  land— the  South  in  the  full-  what  authority  he  shall  so  speak, 
ness  of  tine  was  ready,  other  [iiqlt-  history,  whether  written  by  friend  or 
lems  having  been  solved,  to  take  up  foe,  will  answer,  for  on  her  pages  are 
that  work  of  material  advancement  names  and  events,  put  there  by  hi3 
in  which  she  is  now  so  successfully  prowess  and  the  guarantee  of  his 
engaged.  perpetual  fame.  There  will  be  found 
Therefore  let  this  silent  messen-  the  names  of  Lee,  and  Jaekson,  of 
ger  speak  for  you,  my  comrades,  to  Forest  and  Stuart,  of  the  Kills,  and 
the  men  and  women  of  this  time,  and  of  Longstreet,  of  Johnson  and  Polk, 
to  those  coming  after  them,  of  cour-  Qf  Branch  and  Pender,  and  Ramseur 
age— not  only  of  that  spirit  which  —and  of  many  others  of  glorious 
disdains  danger,  but  of  that  better  memory,  to  mention  whom  time"  fails 
spirit  which  stands  calm  and  unmov-  me.  And  there,  too,  will  be  found 
ed  as  well  in  defeat  as  in  victory,  in  the  story  of  Manass«s,  of  Fredericks- 
darkness  as  in  light,  in  povert/  as  burg,  of  Sbaipsbtirg,  of  Gettysburg 
in  wealth,  and  impels  its  possessor  :,nd  of  Chickamauga. 
under  all  circumstances,  however  And  when  you,  my  comrades,  no 
humble,  or  however  exalted  his  place  'onger  can  command  him,  history 
may  be,  to  do  the  full  duty  of  a  will  bid  nim  speak  of  these  names, 
n-an.  and    of    these    events    of    whicn    you 

Let  him  also  speak  of  patriotism —  were  a   part 

not    the    false    patriotism    in    whose  Men    and    wo;  len    of    chi-s    younger 

name    so    many    crimes    have    been  time,  heed,   we   beg  you,   the   lessons 

committed,    but   that    love    which    ex-  h^  would  teach. 

erts  itself  first  in  affection   for  ones  Be  reminded  by  this  silent  soldier— 

neighbors   and   friends,   and    then   ex-  who,    great    as   he    was    in   war,    was 

tends  itself  to  other  people  and  other  greater  in   peace— to  be   b.-ave   when 

places — of    the    just    enforcement,    ai  danger  appears,  to  bear  with  fortitude 

law  and  civil   order— of  honesty   and  the   ills   of   life,    if   ills,    under   God's 

economy  in   the   management   of   the  providence,  shall  come — to  loye  home 

business    of    the    public — of    love    of  and  its  purity— to  protect  from  taint 

race— his  race— for  the  protection  of  the  Saxon  blood  that  courses  in  your 

the  purity  of  the  home— for  the  main-  veins— to  be,  in  fine,  men  and  women 

tenace     of     schools     and     churches—  worthy  of  the  heritage  of  fame  which 

and,  with  all  these,  for  the  preserva-  this  "Ideal  Confederate   Soldier"  won 

tion    of   a    martial    spirit    among    the  for  his  Sunny  South,  and  gave  to  her 

people    that,      if    war      must      come  people,  and  to  the  people  of  all  this 

(which   God   forbid)    the   men   of   the  great   nation. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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